LAHORE: The health authority has temporarily halted the coronavirus vaccination process at different vaccination centres in the provincial metropolis amid its shortage. On Saturday, a large number of people thronged the Expo Center after shortage of the vaccine was reported at different other centres. The officials at the center stopped the process of vaccination and closed the counters after the people broke into Expo Center.

Official sources claimed that most of the people at Expo Centre insisted AstraZeneca vaccine, as they intend to proceed abroad. The vaccination centres at Minar-e-Pakistan Sports Complex, PKLI and other hospitals remained functional where Chinese Sinopharm and SinoVac jabs are being administered.

Punjab Health Minister Yasmin Rashid said that there are ample doses of Chinese Sinopharm and SinoVac are available and there is only shortage of AstraZeneca jabs. She further said that China was to deliver vaccine supply on June 10 but it was delayed to June 20. She hoped that the regular vaccination process will resume from Monday.

On the other hand, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb slammed the government for shortage of coronavirus vaccine and termed it criminal negligence. Marriyum Aurangzeb, in a statement, held Prime Minister Imran Khan responsible for the vaccine shortage and said that public is paying price of corruption and mismanagement of the PM. She asked Imran Khan to explain the reasons behind delay in procurement of the doses.

Moreover, out of 17,089 Covid-19 tests conducted during the last 24 hours, as many as 158 fresh virus cases and 12 fatalities were reported across the province taking the provincial tally of cases to 344,799 and death toll to 10,615. With the recovery of 349 more virus patients, the number of recovered patients in the province has reached 323,925.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021

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